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About this blog

My Thoughts and Opinions on Various Issues

Entries in this blog

On Internet Stalking and Defamation of Character

There are times when the extremes that some Liberal left-wing individuals will resort to is just amazing. Case in point: 3 years ago, I partook in a forum thread about unruly children in restaurants. I merely commented that I too had had a feeding situation with my child that resulted in some mild, and appropriate for her age, corporal punishment. Well that didn't go over with one of the members in the thread, who proceeded to judge me as some maniac who goes around beating children to death. Li
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Censorship and Selective Moderation on Objectivism Online

Just wanted to get the word out about that 'other' forum... For those of you who wonder why my presense on OOL is so rare in the past year, it’s because I’ve been put on Moderator Watch, which was sometime about a year ago. The individuals who initiated this action, David Veksler and David Odden, aledge that it is because I fail to use Reason in my posts. I don’t know about you, but I have noticed a lot of whacky posts on OOL and they aren’t put on mod watch. So I sense something going on where
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DEALING WITH REJECTION BY CLIENTS

Jan 7 2007, 03:01 AM Very recently, I put my name in the hat, so to speak, to have a chance to bid on a video shoot and production job, working for the bicentennial committee of a nearby town. The project was to be an historical video about the town and would be broadcast on PBS and possibly some local television stations. This would involve interviewing some of the oldest residents of the town, who could recall things, historically, that were not contemporary knowledge, in addition to shootin
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People: Closed-Minded to the Concept of Financial

Dec 30 2006, 08:49 PM Being out in the field, in shopping malls, supermarkets and warehouse stores, I am frequently prospecting for people to join in the financial services business that I am in. People make business move, and so there is a strong emphasis on recruiting new people with a passion to break out of the dead-end job they’re in, but who are also motivated to achieve for themselves and their families. This past week has been increasingly frustrating though, as nearly every person tha
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Thoughts About Poverty and Wealth

Dec 11 2006, 09:11 PM I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, in the process of trying to solve my income problems. I’ve run across a number of fascinating articles. Some of which are rather disheartening, others, conventional wisdom. I’ll discuss a bit about what I learned. Also, I have some theories about poverty, crime and drug abuse, and how people get that way. First, the statistics that are eye-openers: 69% of wealth is inherited. 4% of wealth is acquired through marriage. the remaining
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E-Mail to an Associate

Nov 11 2006, 09:32 PM Today, I was having an e-mail conversation with a lady who works at one of the radio stations where I occasionally do some work. She was encouraging me to stick it out and be persistent with regard to my Primerica endeavours. The events of today were another disappointment. When I returned home, I wrote the following reply: The challenge is getting an audience with that first family. So far, in cold calling, I get a few lukewarm responses, but they don’t show up at the ca
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WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT?

Nov 5 2006, 11:57 PM About twenty years ago, there was a movie by the title Winter of Our Discontent, starring Donald Sutherland, among others. It’s title always stuck in my head, as did the grey, dreary winter images of the film’s cinematography, and whenever I have a series of economic or life downturns in November, that title comes to my mind. This November seems to be shaping up along these lines, despite my concerted efforts at positive thinking. My wife calls it “trials”; that I am being
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STARTING A NEW BUSINESS ISN’T EASY

Nov 2 2006, 08:07 PM Some of the readers of this blog know that I’m at the “end of life” in my radio engineering career, which largely replaced my graphic design career, which I started after retiring from the corporate 9-5 world in the 1980s. With property tax debts piling up and an income that was more business expenses than income, the time was right for a change. Last spring, I was in the middle of a huge emergency with renovating the worst part of the roof of our home. Water damage, carpe
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OSTRACIZED FROM ONLINE COMMUNITY DUE TO WORK AFFIL

Oct 28 2006, 11:43 AM This is an incredulous story that I’m about to relate. I’ll get to the background and then the shocking part: I’ve been a member of a mostly techie web site called BroadbandReports.com, also known as DSLReports.com for about five years now. I’ve been a member in good standing, never spammed the discussion forums and, while often held a contrary view on property taxes and was somewhat notorious for that, never got into a clash with the board’s management because of my view
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THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

Oct 27 2006, 03:52 PM I just finished watching a DVD video called "The Secret". It is a documentary about a secret, known by all the great, successful men throughout history, a secret because the average wage slave doesn't know about it. The topic I am about to discuss is metaphysical and has some grounding in quantum physics. I am writing about the Law of Attraction. It is the primary secret of success. It embodies visualizing what you want, and aligning yourself in harmony with the universe
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MY FEEBLE ATTEMPT AT CARTOONING

Oct 22 2006, 09:11 PM (Cross-posted from my Blog at www.basspig.com) A close friend of mine celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday; his wife had invited myself and a number of other close friends to a surprise party. The requirement was to bring a "homemade" card. Knowing that most of my cards were cheesy, I had to think long and hard about it. And then I realized that a cartoon theme might just have the right flavor for my friend's sense of humor. I'm not a big comic strip fan, but there was
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September 29th: I Passed My Life Insurance Exam!

Oct 3 2006, 10:48 PM Friday, September 29th marked the first real step toward my launching my new business as a representative of Primerica Financial Services. I passed my Life Insurance Producer pre-licensing test. I took the test in Wallingford, CT. It was a strictly-controlled computer-based test (they even make you remove all personal items from your pockets and put them in lockers before you enter the testing room). There is no score given, only pass or fail. I passed! I did 5 hours of r
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Corporate Integrity is Not Yet Down the Drain

Oct 16 2006, 02:32 PM Although this is a story that I had heard about a few weeks ago, yesterday, while I was at the Primerica Leadership training in New Haven, CT (something we reps attend every 3 months), the story came to life in a very intimate way, when it was told in front of the group of 1,000-plus people that were there Saturday, Oct 14th. On October 1st, 2006, a family of five was traveling on the Long Island Expressway and for some reason their minivan veered off the highway and coll
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Career Change, Obstacles & Concerns

Oct 8 2006, 03:20 AM Following the general downturn of the radio industry with respect to RF engineers who work in the field, I am faced with the possibility of a forced career change. One of the things that plagues me with the radio industry is the relatively low hourly wage that clients consider "fair". My published rate is $65, however, I charge clients retained by referral just $50. Despite this modest rate, quite a few clients are indicating that the rate is more than they want to pay. I
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The Renovation That Never Ends?

Oct 5 2006, 11:47 PM This is about carpentry, struggling against poverty, and being in a positon where one's back is against the wall and slowly prevailing, little by little. It is about an ongoing project that I started in earnest in 2003. I live in a house that, a few short years ago was fit for condemnation and demolition. Having gotten married late in life, to an Asian, we returned to the US and the situation was, fortunately, not too much of a shock for her. And American woman would have
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48 Hours To Web Host Administrator!

Feb 12 2006, 11:29 PM This is the story of a small dream that came true. For years, I'd been authoring web pages and uploading them to some server across the country, for a yearly hosting fee. My cable company broadband forbids running servers and blocks all the common server ports. I'd been with them about four years. All of this would change after the wind storm of January the 18, 2006... We had two back-to-back outages in which the cable was out for a week or more before they would send a r
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My First Wedding Shoot (video)

Aug 10 2005, 11:25 PM We shot our first wedding with the VX2000 (and my wife shot stills with a new Olympus E300—what a camera!!) last Sunday, August 7th. The wedding video was planned back in March. We had decided to use three cameras, our two VX2000s and our TRV900. I had arranged to have a relative who is going to school for commercial graphics apprentice as a camera operator. She had done a reasonable job at an event we taped last summer, so I decided to offer this job to her. The morning
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My First Symphony Recording -- Success!

Jul 19 2005, 05:15 AM The third week of June was a most interesting period for me, as I was enjoying a rare opportunity to achieve one of my dreams: recording a symphony orchestra. The opportunity arose because of a longtime client of mine, the general manager of a classical/fine arts radio station, who also happens to be the son of a famous American composer and a conductor as well. In late May, he approached me about a recording session, mainly to be for his self-promotion. I was to make a v
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Mark Goes To Church! (to Record The Organ, Silly!)

Jul 15 2005, 02:26 AM I just got back from the Cathedral in Hartford, CT where I heard the Austin organ demonstrated for me by the assistant music director. This is one of the larger cathedrals in the eastern US. We talked about numerous recording possibilities, including orchestrating unconventional renditions and adapting them to the organ (ie, a piece normally played by an orchestra, adapted to organ). I also spoke to the organist, who lit up when I mentioned the great Bavo Organ in the Net
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A Symphony Can Be Uplifting

Apr 19 2005, 04:47 AM Last Friday night (4/15), I attended a dress rehearsal of a regional symphony orchestra. I was there for the purpose of preparing for the early stages of a possible recording contract; ie., getting familiar with the venue, the orchestra and the politics of it all. This particular night, the orchestra was preparing for a performance of La Traviata in concert form. I sat in the middle of the front row of an otherwise nearly empty theater of 2000 seats, with nothing but my n
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"state Of Fear"

Apr 9 2005, 03:58 AM I just finished reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton. The book impressed me to a degree. By proxy, he proceeds to demolish the entire fraud of the environmental movement, exposing it for what it is: an apparent means of making a few leaders of the movment rich, while pretending to be doing something noble for humanity. The story had a few moments where "suspension of disbelief" was stretched a bit thin, but overall, he did a very adequate job of building suspense, mys
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Plaxo Contact Manager And Privacy Concerns

Mar 1 2006, 08:34 PM A couple of years ago, I received a Plaxo invitation from a trusted friend (or was it Plaxo, impersonating him?), so I figured I'd try it, since, well, if he is using it, then it must be safe. So on my system, it's been for two years running. And in the back of my mind, I'm wondering some things that this particular writer, whose article is linked below, is wondering: http://www.meskill.net/archives/000467.html Things really came to a head when I decided to troubleshoot, i
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Graphics/a/v/multimedia--where Has The Money Gone?

Mar 22 2006, 03:54 AM I've been making a concerted effort to find work in my area of talent and experience, relating to computer technology this year, and I'm coming back from it all, very frustrated. For example, job postings on Elance.com are attracting very low--ridiculously-low--bids. And the companies that post these projects have absurdly-small budgets. Who the hell can produce a 36-page 4C catalogue for $236?? Other jobs involve fairly advanced 3D graphics modeling and animation, again,
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A Painless Root Canal?

Mar 30 2005, 12:08 AM I went to the dentist today to have a long-needed root canal done. This is part of a series of things I am doing to get myself physically feeling better. The mind, in order to function well, must be supported by a body that is functioning well. I've had trouble with a certain back molar for a few years now. It usually flared up twice a year, but it was becoming more frequent this year, so I decided it is time. My dentist is probably on of the best around. He's actually qu
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Anthem

March 29 2005 The last time I read Anthem was the autumn of 1968. I did not fully understand it then, as I was much younger and had less context by which to reference the work. Tonight, it was my intention to continue reading a Michael Crichton book that I had just purchased, however, thinking about how I might introduce my wife to Objectivism in a series of small, pleasant steps, I went to my Sacred Books, which I keep in a place out of reach of all but myself, at the top of the bookcases. I to
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